Gaza flotilla has roots in pro-Palestinian group

In this file photo taken on May 6, 2010, Israeli and international activists prevent a bulldozer from working during a protest against the construction of Israel's separation barrier in the West Bank village of Walajeh, outside Jerusalem. The stream of ships heading to Gaza in defiance of Israel's blockade reflects the success of ISM, a radical pro-Palestinian group that's been creatively confronting Israel for years. High on victory, they are flush with new volunteers.

- Bernat Armangue, File /AP Photo

Gaza flotilla has roots in pro-Palestinian group

By DIAA HADID
The Associated Press
Thursday, July 22, 2010; 2:40 AM

BEIT JALA, West Bank -- The stream of ships heading to Gaza in defiance of Israel's blockade reflects the success of a pro-Palestinian group that's been creatively confronting Israel for years. High on victory, they are flush with new volunteers.

Activists of the International Solidarity Movement first sailed to Gaza in summer 2008 to challenge Israel's blockade of the Hamas-ruled territory. Most recently in May, it organized a Gaza-bound flotilla that led to a botched Israeli raid that killed nine activists, sparked an international outcry and forced Israel to ease its 3-year-old blockade.

In recent weeks, Israel has allowed more goods into Gaza.

"Around the world, we motivated people who were frustrated but didn't know what to do," said Huwaida Arraf, 34, co-founder of the ISM and its naval spinoff, the Free Gaza Movement, which organized the May flotilla. Since the movement's ships began, other groups have joined them or imitated them with their own ships trying to reach Gaza's shores - some of them successfully.

Israel is trying to crack down harder on ISM, and the group has also come under criticism for putting volunteers in danger.

Still, more people are volunteering.

Palestinian activist Hisham Jamjoum says the since the May flotilla, 10 recruits a week have attended his workshop, required for ISM volunteers - double the average.

The ISM was launched in 2001 for sympathetic foreigners to help Palestinians throw off Israeli rule. Its founders are a mix - Arraf, a Palestinian who is a dual Israeli-U.S. citizen; her husband, Adam Shapiro, an American Jew; Neta Golan, an Israeli, and Ghassan Andoni, a Palestinian from the West Bank.

Some 7,000 people - a third of them Jews - have participated since, mainly serving as peaceful, but provocative buffers between Palestinians and Israeli forces, mostly at protests. The group was first noticed in 2002 when its activists rushed past Israeli tanks to shield the besieged Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in his West Bank headquarters.

The chance to participate in a compelling conflict is popular with college-age students on summer breaks. For many Jews, it's a chance to understand the conflict from a radically pro-Palestinian perspective.

But while most activists read about Mideast politics, volunteers can be clueless about conservative Palestinian culture. That's led to tensions, including sexual harassment. Some Palestinians assume female activists are permissive because they don't behave like conservative Palestinian women.

During last week's workshop, Jamjoum, 52, laid the rules out. He asked women to cover their arms and legs. For men: long pants only. Another volunteer explained how to dodge sexual harassment.

Jamjoum taught the volunteers Arabic phrases, including "please," "thank you," and "I'm a vegetarian." Activists don't realize they are offending Palestinian housewives when they don't eat their chicken dishes, he explained.

Noting a Palestinian stereotype about unwashed "hippie" activists, Jamjoum told the girls makeup was OK. "Some people think to show solidarity with Palestinians, you have to wear ugly clothes. No. We like you nice and clean."

Upon graduation, an ISM dispatcher sends activists to demonstrations in coordination with Palestinian protest leaders. They distribute footage of clashes on YouTube, blogs and Facebook.

One ISM veteran - a 23-year-old American calling herself Saegan - highlights an activist's life. Like other volunteers, she would only identity herself with a pseudonym. During her 6 months with the group, she has been battered by tear gas alongside Palestinians, but also fended off a Palestinian man who tried to rape her while she slept in a West Bank village.

On a routine day, she joined a demonstration in the town of Beit Jala against Israel's West Bank separation barrier in June. The barrier protects Israel against militants - but also swallows chunks of Palestinian land.

Some 20 Palestinian youths and activists scrambled down an olive grove, where Israeli soldiers guarded a crane clearing land for the barrier. Soldiers fired tear gas. Palestinian youths hurled rocks. Saegan stood close Israeli soldiers. "You are stealing Palestinian land," she said.

To Israeli officials, the activists are misguided idealists and troublemakers. This year, Israeli forces stormed ISM offices three times, seizing equipment and arresting activists. In March, military officials broadened the definition of who is an "infiltrator," allowing them to speedily deport foreign activists.

The ISM takes its own measures: They don't keep databases, and activists use pseudonyms. Hardcore activists legally change their names to dodge an Israeli blacklist of ISM volunteers.

Stepping into confrontations can be dangerous. Rachel Corrie, 23, of Olympia, Washington, was crushed to death by an Israeli army bulldozer while trying to block it from demolishing a home in Gaza. A British activist was killed by an Israeli soldier in Gaza in 2003. A Palestinian ISM activist was killed by a Palestinian militant in the West Bank town of Jenin.

And the May flotilla went lethally wrong.

Israel says it responded with deadly force when activists on the ship - from a Turkish group that joined the ISM's flotilla - attacked commandos with iron bars. ISM activists weren't involved in the violence, but Arraf told Israeli naval officials that everybody was unarmed.

"They have become the useful idiots of Islamic extremists," said Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor.

Palestinians have mixed views about their foreign friends.

Bassam Tamimi, a protest leader, complained activists often pressured Palestinians to stop hurling rocks at Israeli soldiers. Another leader, Shady Faraghwa said volunteers boosted morale. The volunteers say the Palestinian conflict is their emblematic issue - as explained by a 24-year old from Denmark who calls himself Carl: "This is the Vietnam of our generation."

Some Gaza women smolder over Hamas' water-pipe ban

Tara Todras-Whitehill / AP

A Palestinian woman smokes a water pipe at a cafe in Gaza City, Sunday, July 18, 2010. Gaza's Hamas rulers have banned women from smoking water pipes in cafes, calling it a practice that destroys marriages and sullies the image of the Palestinian people.

Some Gaza women smolder over Hamas' water-pipe ban

By DIAA HADID and IBRAHIM BARZAK, Associated Press Writers

Gaza Strip (AP) --There are few pleasures left for Gaza's 1.5 million people, squeezed by both a blockade and Hamas efforts to impose its strict Muslim lifestyle. And women here just lost another one.

Gaza's Hamas rulers have banned women from smoking water pipes in cafes, sending plainclothes agents through popular beachside spots Sunday to enforce the edict. Some women in the Palestinian territory are grumbling.

"This is silly," said Haya Ahmed, a 29-year-old accountant who said she has smoked water pipes for 10 years. "We are not smoking in the streets but in restaurants, where only a few people can enter."

She predicted the ban would actually make water pipes more tempting for rebellious young women. "Everything forbidden becomes desirable. The decision will lead to more smokers," Ahmed said.

Many Gazans pile into beach cafes in the evenings to puff on water pipes well into the wee hours of the morning. Islamic law does not ban women from smoking the traditional tobacco-infused pipes, but many frown upon the practice.

The water pipe restrictions are just the latest in a yearlong Hamas campaign to gradually enforce a strict Muslim life code on the people of Gaza — many of whom are conservative Muslims themselves and not entirely opposed. But the secular minority feels the crunch.

Hamas, the Islamic militant group that overran Gaza three years ago, has banned women from riding motorbikes — mostly impoverished women riding behind their husbands on cheaply bought Vespas. Teenage girls are pressured by their Hamas-loyal school teachers to cover up in loose robes and headscarves.

Men, meanwhile, are the ones mostly targeted if they are seen alongside women in public. And they too are bullied by Hamas officials if they dress in ways considered too Western — like shorts instead of long pants.

Hamas frequently mixes its strict interpretation of Islamic law with conservative Gaza tradition. Over the weekend, the two dovetailed to produce the smoking ban.

"It is inappropriate for a woman to sit cross-legged and smoke in public. It harms the image of our people," Ihab Ghussein, Hamas Interior Ministry spokesman, said in a statement Sunday. Police spokesman Ayman Batneiji claimed husbands have divorced wives who smoked in public, without substantiating his claim.

Many residents are deeply sensitive to any effort by Hamas to infringe on leisure activities in the territory, which already are limited. A three-year-long blockade by Israel and Egypt has depressed the economy, limiting options in entertainment and practically every other facet of life.

Some women were seen smoking hookahs Sunday, despite the ban. Natasha Ali was taking turns puffing on a water pipe with her husband, Suleiman, at a seaside restaurant Sunday evening.

"I don't think that anyone could force me to do something against my freedom or my wife's freedom," said Suleiman Ali.

However, many in Gaza see the water pipe as inappropriate for women because of its sexual connotation and because it looks crass for ladies to smoke, said Palestinian anthropologist Ali Qleibo.

It's a sentiment shared in conservative Saudi Arabia, where both sexes are banned from smoking hookahs. It's frowned upon in Egypt, too, although women frequently smoke in trendy restaurants out of view of the general public. Women in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan openly smoke water pipes.

Hamas sometimes backs down when Gazans resist new rules. A ban on men working in ladies hair salons was never enforced, and a demand that female lawyers cover their hair before they enter courtrooms was quietly rescinded.

But Hamas has successfully banned women from riding motorbikes. Last year the group swooped down on moonshiners, banned foreigners from bringing alcohol into Gaza and ordered shopkeepers to take down scantly clad mannequins.

Plainclothes officers frequently stop couples walking in the streets, demanding to see marriage licenses. Some residents say they have been interrogated, even beaten, on suspicion they are gay or had extramarital sex.

Six young men told The Associated Press that they were all harassed by plainclothes agents who demanded they move away from women they were walking with, because they weren't married. One man said he was detained and slapped around.

Human rights activist Subhiya Juma said she is aware of hundreds of similar cases.

An Internet cafe owner said he was ordered to ban women from his establishment last year after another plainclothes agent saw women smoking inside. Two other Gaza cafe owners said they asked men and women to sit at separate tables to avoid harassment by Hamas police.

In Gaza, art cafe owner Jamal Abu Qumsan, 43, was accused of having extramarital sex in May. The allegations were made during an interrogation that began over a hip-hop concert he wanted to host. Hamas officials are reluctant to allow Western-style music performances in Gaza, musicians say.

Abu Qumsan said Hamas police whipped him, leaving red welts along his legs and buttocks during hours-long interrogations over several days. He has released photographs showing the wounds.

It's unclear how many similar cases exist. Few other Gazans would acknowledge being targeted for their sex lives because of the shame of even being suspected of deviating from the territory's conservative sexual codes.

Last year, a 23-year-old man was interrogated for a week over rumors he was gay. He requested anonymity for fear of further reprisals. In another case, the New York-based Human Rights Watch reported that a gay man was held in a Gaza jail.

Ghussein, the Interior Ministry spokesman, denied claims they were trying to coerce Gazans into adopting a strictly Islamic lifestyle.

"If we wanted to make Gaza like the Taliban, then we could have done that very easily," Ghussein said.

Hamas bans women from smoking water pipes in cafes

By IBRAHIM BARZAK | Posted: Sunday, July 18, 2010 6:40 am |

Gaza's Hamas rulers have banned women from smoking water pipes in cafes, calling it a practice that destroys marriages and sullies the image of the Palestinian people.

The ban marks the Islamist militant group's latest effort to impose their harsh Muslim lifestyle in the seaside strip on an often resistant public.

While Muslim law does not technically ban women from smoking the traditional tobacco-infused pipes, tradition frowns upon the habit. Hamas frequently mixes its strict interpretation of Islamic law with conservative Gaza tradition, and over the weekend, the two dovetailed to produce the smoking ban.

"It is inappropriate for a woman to sit cross-legged and smoke in public. It harms the image of our people," Ihab Ghussein, Hamas interior ministry spokesman, said in a statement released Sunday.

"Many women who smoke in public were divorced when their husbands saw them, or found out about them," said Hamas police spokesman, Ayman Batneiji, without substantiating his claim.

The ban was handed down by plainclothes security officials who marched through a strip of popular cafes by Gaza's seashore over the weekend, ordering owners not to serve water pipes to female customers.

Confused owners initially thought the ban applied to both men and women, killing most of their evening business. The Hamas government swiftly issued a statement reassuring residents the ban only applied to women.

Smoking water pipes is a popular habit among both sexes in the impoverished Gaza Strip. Although it is considered culturally inappropriate for women to be seen smoking them in public, some middle-class ladies smoke the pipes openly, often in mixed company. Even more conservative women can be seen taking an occasional puff of their husbands' water pipes.

"This is silly," fumed Haya Ahmed, a 29-year-old accountant who said she has smoked water pipes for 10 years. "We are not smoking in the streets but in restaurants where only a few people can enter."

She predicted the ban would have the opposite effect of its intention and make water pipes more tempting for rebellious young women. "Everything forbidden becomes desirable. The decision will lead to more smokers," Ahmed said.

Many Palestinians see the water pipe as inappropriate for women because of its sexual innuendo, and because it looks crass for ladies to smoke, said Palestinian anthropologist Ali Qleibo.

It is not clear how strict Hamas will be in enforcing the ban.

Many residents are deeply sensitive to any effort by Hamas to infringe on the few forms of entertainment available to Gaza's 1.5 million people. For three years, they have lived under an Israeli and Egyptian blockade that has penned them into the tiny coastal territory. Many Gazans pile into beach cafes in the evenings to puff on water pipes well into the early hours.

A cafe and restaurant union representative in Gaza, Ayman Abu Khair, estimated the ban would cost cafe owners some 10 percent of their income. He said owners were not warned before Hamas police barged into their establishments Friday night issuing the verbal order. Abu Khair said the union hoped to challenge the ruling.

The militant group has backed down in the past when it senses resistance to its harsh rules. A ban on men working in female hair salons was never enforced, and a demand that female lawyers cover their hair before they enter courtrooms was quietly rescinded.

But Hamas has successfully banned women from riding motorbikes, arguing it was culturally inappropriate. It also instructed teachers to pressure teenage girls to cover up in long, loose robes and headscarves. Last year the group cracked down on Gaza's tiny number of moonshiners and banned foreigners from bringing alcohol into the blockaded territory.

For Ahmed, the ban has been a damper. "I smoked (in public) with my family around," she said. "Now, I will smoke at home."

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Associated Press writer Diaa Hadid contributed to this report from Jerusalem.